With the advent of photonic crystal fiber in 1990s, researchers extend the research on the broadband high-brightness coherent supercontinuum light source. A lot of new technologies and new methods are emerging. In practical applications, the broadband high-brightness flat supercontinuum light source can not only satisfy system requirements on spectral bandwidth, but also improve detection accuracy and decrease difficulty to equalize the optical power. The supercontinuum light source has become an important research direction. The latest supercontinuum projects are introduced, then the research progress in supercontinuum generation in fibers with ultrashort pulses and continuous waves and the status of spectral manipulation are reviewed, and the prospect and applications of supercontinuum development are presented.